The present invention relates to security of materials, and more particularly, to a method, corresponding system, and corresponding device, for protecting a material from contamination by an illicit substance or object, particularly as a result of an unauthorized or illegal act, such as that performed by children, teenagers, as well as that often performed by animals, such as by birds or insects or/and by small land animals, for example, rodents, squirrels, and snakes. The present invention is particularly applicable to a large volume, for example, of at least several hundreds of liters, and up to several millions of liters, of essentially any type of liquid or/and solid phase material, presently contained and stored, or intended to be stored, in a closed container, tank, reservoir, receptacle, or similar type of closed storage entity whose inside is potentially accessible to humans or/and animals, wherein the material may be considered at risk from contamination caused by an unauthorized or illegal act, such as that performed by children, teenagers, or animals, and therefore needs to be protected against such acts.
In a wide variety of different governmental, commercial, and private, sectors and areas of activities, a large volume, for example, of at least several hundreds of liters, and up to several millions of liters, of a given liquid or/and solid phase material is commonly contained and stored in a closed container, tank, reservoir, receptacle, or similar type of closed storage entity whose inside is accessible to humans or/and animals, herein generally and equivalently referred to as a closed internally accessible container, or as a closed container, or for brevity, as a container, of appropriate size and materials of construction. Just a few specific examples of such a stored material are water, a petroleum based liquid fuel, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, or airplane fuel, a raw or intermediate material used for processing or manufacturing a finished product, such as a human edible food product, a pharmaceutical product, or a chemical product, and a finished product obtained from completion of a manufacturing process. One or more access openings are often configured as part of the construction of the cover of the closed container. Access openings are typically used by authorized personnel for performing a variety of legitimate actions or activities. For example, for entering and providing maintenance (cleaning, repairing) to the inside of the container; for adding material from an outside source to the container; for removing material from the container to an outside receiver; for ventilating the container; for determining the level of the material inside the container; for removing a sample of the material from the container, for the purpose of testing or/and monitoring the quality of the material, for example, in terms of pre-determined parameters of physical, chemical, or/and biological, properties, characteristics, and behavior (activity), of the material; or for any combination of such authorized actions or activities.
A given large volume of a contained material is typically stored in a designated storage location, either inside or outside of a building or other type of designated storage entity, within the grounds or boundaries of a governmental, commercial, or private, property, facility, or complex. Moreover, such grounds or boundaries are typically part of an overall, multi-faceted, security environment, characterized by security conditions and arrangements involving different types and amounts of security equipment or hardware and security procedures. Commonly known and employed types of security equipment or hardware are walls, fences (non-electronic, electronic), locks (non-electronic, electronic), or similar physical barriers, security guards, guard dogs, electronic alarms, electronic visual surveillance devices such as video cameras and motion detectors, and electronic audio surveillance devices such as sound detectors. A commonly employed security procedure is based on the concept of ‘response time’, relating to how quickly on-site or/and off-site security personnel respond to a ‘break’ in a given type of security equipment or hardware in the overall secure environment.
Actual security conditions and arrangements of a given stored material depend upon several factors, such as the type, active or potential hazard level, value, size, location, accessibility, and eventual use, of the stored material. For example, a large volume of water used by a nuclear power plant, in particular, for cooling the nuclear reactor, is typically stored in an extremely high level security environment, such as one featuring all of the above types of security equipment or hardware, along with a relatively short response time to a security break. As other examples, a large volume of a petroleum based liquid fuel, such as gasoline or diesel, a large volume of a raw or intermediate material for manufacturing or processing a finished product, such as a human edible food product, a pharmaceutical product, or a chemical product, and a finished product obtained from completion of a manufacturing process, is typically stored in a moderate level security environment, such as one featuring some or most, but not all, of the above types of security equipment or hardware, along with a relatively moderate response time to a security break. Another example, particularly common in many regions of the world, is a large volume of public drinking water stored in a closed container or reservoir housed in an elevated ‘water tower’ type of ‘stand-alone’ structure, typically located within a community, a town, or a larger population center, featuring a relatively low level security environment, such as one including only fences or/and locks, without any electronic means of security, along with a relatively long response time to a security break due to the uncertainty in accurately determining the time of an actual entry through, or break of, a fence or lock by an unauthorized person or animal.
In principle, essentially any large volume of material stored in a closed container, regardless of the level of the overall security environment, at one time or another, may be considered at risk from contamination by unauthorized or illegal introduction of an illicit substance or object, for example, via an access opening in the cover of the container, as a result of an unauthorized or illegal act, such as that performed by children, teenagers, as well as that often performed by animals, such as by birds or insects or/and by small land animals, for example, rodents, squirrels, and snakes.
Herein, an illicit substance or object is any substance or object in the possession of a perpetrator or perpetrators (such as children, teenagers, or/and animals) about to perform, or in the process of performing, an unauthorized or illegal act involving introduction of that substance or object to a material stored in a closed container. Additionally, herein, an illicit substance or object may also be the perpetrator or perpetrators (such as children, teenagers, or/and animals) themselves, for example, introducing themselves, via an access opening in the cover of the container, to the material stored in the container.
For the applicable regions of the world, the large volume of public drinking water stored in a closed container or reservoir housed in a water tower type of structure is considered a highly attractive or desirable for serving as a likely target of contamination by a potential perpetrator (such as children, teenagers, or animals), but, is typically provided a relatively low level security environment including a relatively long response time to a security break. Additionally, a large volume of a petroleum based liquid fuel, or of a raw or intermediate material used for processing or manufacturing a finished product, or a finished product obtained from completion of a manufacturing process, may also be considered highly attractive or desirable for serving as likely targets of contamination by a potential perpetrator (such as children, teenagers, or animals), but, may also be stored in relatively low level security environments including a relatively long response time to a security break. Thus, for these and similar cases, there exists an anomaly, and therefore, a potential flaw or limitation, regarding the overall security environment, in general, and regarding the security conditions and arrangements, in particular, provided for protecting a given stored material.
Clearly, the type (reversible or/and irreversible) and extent of contamination by an illicit substance or object introduced into a given stored material depend upon the physical, chemical, or/and biological, properties, characteristics, and behavior (activity), and size, of the stored material, of the illicit substance or object, and of the interaction of the illicit substance or object with the stored material. Furthermore, duration of the interaction of the illicit substance or object with the stored material is another important factor determining the type and extent of contamination of the stored material. Thus, following a break in the overall security environment of the stored material and subsequent introduction of an illicit substance or object into the material, and depending upon the actual security conditions and arrangements in operation, duration of interaction of the illicit substance or object with the material is a function of (i) the time required for the security equipment or hardware to discover and identify the break in security, (ii) the additional time taken for notifying (on-site or/and off-site) security personnel, (iii) the additional time taken by the security personnel to respond to the break in security, (iv) the additional time required for notifying the appropriate materials handling personnel (typically, not the same as security personnel) for handling the contaminated material, and (v) the additional time required for properly responding to potential release of the contaminated material from the container or reservoir, and if applicable, from the designated storage location, of the contaminated material.
Moreover, and relatedly, there is the important issue regarding the type and extent of potential damage to infrastructure or/and injury (including possible death) of humans caused by exposure of these entities to the contaminated material, following possible release of the contaminated material from the storage environment. In a bad scenario, release of a contaminated material could lead to a situation of destruction of infrastructure or/and injury (including death) of humans, for example, on a large scale.
All of the above types of conventional or/and high-tech security environments, conditions, and arrangements (equipment or hardware and procedures), used for protecting a material from contamination by an illicit substance or object as a result of an unauthorized or illegal act, such as that performed by children, teenagers, as well as that often performed by animals, such as by birds or insects or/and by small land animals, for example, rodents, squirrels, and snakes, are primarily focused on discovering, identifying, and targeting, the break in security, and to a certain extent, also to slow down, impede, or obstruct, further progress or duration of, the break in security. However, once contamination by the unauthorized or illegal introduction of the illicit substance or object into the material is made, for example, via an access opening in the cover of the container, ‘the clock starts ticking’ regarding potential or actual damage to infrastructure or/and injury (including possible death) of humans caused by exposure of these entities to the contaminated material, following release of the contaminated material from the broken security storage environment.
Accordingly, a significant limitation which is common to all of the above types of conventional or/and high-tech security environments, conditions, and arrangements, is the lack of additional security conditions and arrangements (equipment or hardware or/and procedures), following a break in the overall security environment of the stored material, for ‘preventing’ contamination of the material by unauthorized or illegal introduction of an illicit substance or object into the storage container.
There is thus a need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have a method, corresponding system, and corresponding device, for protecting a material from contamination by an illicit substance or object, particularly as a result of an unauthorized or illegal act, such as that performed by children, teenagers, as well as that often performed by animals, such as by birds or insects or/and by small land animals, for example, rodents, squirrels, and snakes. There is a need for such an invention which provides security conditions (equipment or hardware and a procedure), whereupon following a break in the overall security environment of a material stored in a closed container or reservoir, operation of the invention ‘prevents’ contamination of the protected material by unauthorized introduction of an illicit substance or object into the storage container or reservoir. Moreover, there is a need for such an invention which is generally applicable to essentially any type and quantity (particularly large volumes) of liquid or/and solid phase material, which is generally applicable to essentially any type, and essentially any geometrical shape or configuration and dimensions, of closed storage containers, which is relatively inexpensive to fully implement, which is readily implemented in new or existing storage environments, and which is commercially applicable.
Furthermore, there is a need for such an invention which, as either part of, or separate from, ensuring the protection and security of the material, optionally, may additionally be implemented for automatically in-situ testing or/and monitoring the quality or/and quantity (amount) of the decoy material in the mounted (and aligned or non-aligned) trap, in particular, by testing or/and monitoring pre-determined parameters of physical, chemical, or/and biological, properties, characteristics, and behavior (activity), or/and, level (height), of the decoy material therein.